Future smartphone cases could come equipped with ‘mobile airbags’

A student from Germany has invented a smartphone case that deploys four metal springs to protect the phone from damage when it falls.

The case is equipped with sensors that can tell when the phone is in free fall.

The student is reportedly going to try to further fund the project via Kickstarter.

A German engineering student called Philip Frenzel has invented a mobile airbag smartphone case that could help protect phones from damage when they fall. According to Preview Online (via Design Boom), Frenzel came up with the idea after he smashed the display of a brand new smartphone, yet wasn’t happy with the bulky protective cases he used for his replacement device.

Preview Online explains that the case is equipped with sensors that can tell when the device is in free fall. These sensors then launch four metal springs that break the fall and reduce the potential for damage to the phone. The metal springs can be folded back up into the case, ready for the next time you drop your device. You can see the case in action in the (German) video below.

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The case won an award from The German Society for Mechatronics for outstanding work in the field on mechatronics. According to Preview Online, Frenzel is going to launch a Kickstarter campaign next month to fund the next stage of the project.

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While the product in the video is clearly a prototype and won’t win any awards for the way it looks, it does offer up an interesting solution to the problem of how to stop damage to phones when they fall. If Frenzel and his team can come up with more streamlined and refined model, then they could have a winning formula on their hands.